John Cradden on the difficult transition a business must make as it goes from start-up to scale-up.
It’s fair to say that the start-up phase is a highly formative one for most firms. It’s during the journey of getting a business off the ground that much of your company’s essential mission and values will emerge.
But among the many risks ahead as you embark on the scaling up stage is that shifting from a small, adaptable team to a larger, more complex, more process-driven organisation could create friction, resistance and growing pains that could result in the business losing the very character and focus that defined it.
“While your culture is likely to undergo some change or adaptation, you can still emerge with your company’s mission, values and entrepreneurial spirit fully intact”
If it’s done well, however, scaling up can really help realise the true potential of your firm and create an exciting future for you, your employees and your stakeholders. Even better, while your culture is likely to undergo some change or adaptation, you can still emerge with your company’s mission, values and entrepreneurial spirit fully intact.
Teamwork
Cork-based Teamwork is a project-management SaaS firm that went through a long period of bootstrapping and organic growth until they reached the point of seeking external investment so that they could accelerate their scaling up. Up until that point, they had grown their workforce from 20 to 70 employees in the two years up to 2016, and which further expanded into a global team of 244 by 2019, when they achieved $31 million in revenues.
“We need to get laser-focused on people, process and being innovative,” co-founder and CEO Daniel Mackey told ThinkBusiness in 2019.
Two years later, they secured $70m from European tech growth capital firm Bregal Milestone, which enabled it to focus on enterprise sales and product expansion to boost ARR and enter new markets in Europe and the US. In 2024, it was one of four Irish firms featured in the second edition of the Leading European Tech Scaleups (LETS) map compiled by France Digitale.
Preserving culture
The biggest challenge for any firm scaling up will be in ensuring your people are up for the change. While employees will expect a small company to be focused on growth, they may well thrive in the fast-moving, agile and informal environments that typify many small startups, and where the strongest evidence of the company’s values will be in the daily interactions amongst staff.
Strong values alone, however, won’t survive in a business that needs to adapt as it grows, so this makes it important to find ways to state and reinstate your company’s values as often as possible as expansion progresses. This can be done through leadership actions, company rituals and employee engagement initiatives.
Many startups will also have a flat hierarchy, where the founders and management will sit next to the employees and involve them in many of the important day-to-day decisions. But as a company grows, the leadership may become more disconnected and less accessible, leading to a loss of transparency and trust. This makes strong communication – even over-communication – essential at all levels of the organisation, including giving employees opportunities to provide feedback.
Hiring and promoting
It’s natural that scaling up a business will generate fresh career opportunities for existing employees, so investing in your people through training, development, and internal mobility will be a timely move and will help you retain key employees who best embody your company’s values.
When it comes to hiring new people, the focus should shift away from recruiting for technical skills and immediate needs as might have been the case in the early days to one that seeks out people with potential. The ability to adapt, lead and grow with the company becomes just as important as technical expertise.
Balancing processes with creativity and innovation
As the company grows in size, a shift towards processes and policies may be inevitable in order to facilitate a stronger structure. But finding a balance between necessary processes and continuing to foster entrepreneurial spirit and creativity can be tricky.
The key is to introduce any new processes gradually and only where they add value. Review these policies regularly and develop with regular feedback. Another way of tackling this is to implement flexible frameworks so as to encourage rather than stifle innovation and ideas.
Strong tech foundation
A strong technical foundation is essential when scaling your business, particularly during busy periods and especially if you have high transaction volumes. Investing in reliable systems and getting ready for peak demand can ensure smooth operations and avoid costly downtime.
But the right technology platform can also support cultural transformation as long as they align with your company’s values. Tools like employee engagement platforms will provide continuous feedback and provide leaders with visibility into team dynamics and foster cross collaboration, while performance management tools ensure that employees remain aligned with company goals.
Seek out supports
Enterprise Ireland should be a first port of call for support with scaling up your business. Whether it’s for funding and grants, advice on capacity development, expanding into overseas markets, there is support for your particular needs.
This also extends to matching you with a mentor who has experience in scaling up as well as getting a business through its earliest phases. What one founder does to succeed can vary widely from the next, but the mistakes that founders make are often the same.
-
Bank of Ireland is welcoming new customers every day – funding investments, working capital and expansions across multiple sectors. To learn more, click here
-
For support in challenging times, click here
-
Listen to the ThinkBusiness Podcast for business insights and inspiration. All episodes are here. You can also listen to the Podcast on:
-
Spotify
-
SoundCloud
-
Apple
